Day Trips

Posted June 6, 2007 2:44 p.m. EDT

Getting
out and about

A Peek into our Colonial Past.
Tryon Palace – less than a two-hour drive from Raleigh is a place
where governors ruled, legislators debated, patriots gathered and George
Washington danced. This stately historical landmark
was built as the first permanent capitol of the British colony of North
Carolina. It became North Carolina’s first state capitol after independence was declared.
It was later abandoned in 1794 after Raleigh was chosen for the capital
city. Four years later, an accidental fire destroyed the Palace. Then
for almost 150 years, the Palace sat as a neglected and burned memory
until reconstruction and restoration began in 1944. Today the Palace
and its gardens serve as a vibrant and colorful link to North Carolina’s
colonial past.

There are seven major buildings and 14 acres of gardens
for you to visit. As part of your tour, you can also watch historical
craft demonstrations or chat with re-enactors. Four of the buildings
are shown by guided tour: the Palace, the John Wright Stanly House,
the Robert Hay House, and the George W. Dixon House.

Three of the buildings
are self-guided: the Kitchen Office, the Stable Office, and the New
Bern Academy. The gardens are also self-guided. A free gardens booklet
with a map and historical information is available at the Visitor Center.

To fully enjoy your visit, you should plan to spend
at least half a day.
For more information, call 800-767-1560 or visit www.tryonpalace.org.

Restless to Ride the Rails?
This country has a long, and some say, romantic railroad history. That
history is alive and well at the North Carolina Railroad Museum in
New Hill, NC.

Drive 25 minutes south of Raleigh on US 1 and you’ll
step back in time. On the first Sunday of each month from May through
November, you can ride a steam engine along the old Norfolk Southern
rail lines. During this 8-mile round trip, your narrator will provide
a history of the equipment and interesting facts about how railroads
have shaped our area.

The museum also features the Bonsal Garden Railroad — a
6,685 sq. ft. “G” model railroad complete with steam engines,
a village, a truss bridge over a miniature lake, and a scale model
of the Apex train depot.

Special events include the Halloween Express
rides on Oct. 30 and Christmas rides in December.

All about Adventure.
If garden tours and train rides are too tame for your taste, how does
rock climbing, sky diving, or kayaking sound? Carolina Sky Sports — located
just 30 miles northeast of Raleigh in Louisburg — offers tandem
and solo skydiving adventures to experienced jumpers and novices alike.
First-time jumpers are harnessed to their instructor and use a special
parachute system designed to carry two people. For more information
about Carolina Sky Sports, call 1-800-SKYDIVE or visit www.carolinaskysports.com.

For land-loving adventurers, rappelling, river
tubing, horseback riding and more are just a phone call away. The Triangle
Adventure Club offers one-stop shopping for all sorts of one-day and
overnight excursions. You can either sign up for an upcoming trip listed
on the Club’s
Adventure Calendar, or you can call for help with planning a special
trip. Trips are available for groups of all sizes, ages and abilities.
For more information, or for a list of upcoming adventures, call 919-876-9486
or visit www.triangleadventureclub.com.

USS Battleship North Carolina
For naval history enthusiasts, the USS Battleship North Carolina is a
great way to spend an afternoon. Just a two-hour drive from Raleigh,
this retired battleship is permanently anchored in the Cape Fear River
directly across from historic downtown Wilmington.

The self-guided tour of this authentically restored
World War II-era combatant is well marked so that you can tour at your
own pace. The tour takes approximately two hours to complete. For the
enthusiast, it can easily take three to four hours to fully experience
the ship, particularly with the extensive interpretive signage throughout
the ship.

So, the next time you’re restless for a road
trip, but you don’t
have a whole weekend, break out the map and pack the cooler, because
North Carolina offers plenty to see—even if you’ve only got
one day to see it.